Custom build - 200+ gallon acrylic

[stefdvm]

Brief background — I’ve been in the hobby for a little over 9 years now. Started out by converting a tall, octagonal tank my ex left when I kicked him out. It was about 50gal, no sump, ran it FOWLR with a canister filter. That didn’t keep me satisfied for long and I went to a 75gal bowfront, still FOWLR, no sump. Then I added a second tank - smaller, more like 30 gal. And a nano system with 2 itty bitty coral crouchers in it. And a rectangular 75 gal, fish and softies... anyway, my employment changed over the years and I started traveling for work which made tank management difficult. So I bought a 135 and consolidated all of my tanks. And shortly thereafter I upgraded to a 220. And then, I had a crash... I was gone for a couple of weeks, my nanny decided to “help” by removing all of my macroalgae and over feeding my fish - Nitrates skyrocketed and I got a call as I was headed home that my fish were literally dropping dead on the sand. I ended up losing all but 5 fish. I transferred the 3 smaller fish into and my 3 BTAs, as well as a few smaller softies into my QT; my 2” wide toadstool and the 2 large fish (a yellow belly blue hippo and a sail fin tang), I took up to my lfs along with whatever other corals I could salvage. My tamarin jumped out of the QT within a few days, so I have a large Pajama cardinal and a leopard Moyer’s wrasse left. My nems got stressed out and split from 3 into 7. My toadstool has doubled in size in the last 3 mos, so it’s “happy” I guess. I traded that tank for a tattoo for my hubs (Not the same jerk I kicked out years ago). We moved from the NC coast to central part of the state a few months ago, and I’m ready to get back in it. Hubs says this is my “last tank” - cute, isn’t he? So I special ordered an acrylic tank from Aquarium and Terrarium Builders in Raleigh, NC - he has gorgeous tanks. It is as large as I can fit in the space I have. It’s going to be 60” x 30” x 30” with a central overflow. Hopefully I’ll have it sometime In March.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Very nice

 

[Murica]

Sounds like it’s going to be nice, be sure to add pics when you get it.

 

[Zach B]

Sounds awesome! Keep us posted

 

[stefdvm]

I have very little storage space in what is really a dang big house; it’s certainly the largest house I’ve ever owned or lived in. We have ONE coat closet between the entry and the great room. We have no lien closets, no pantry, no other significant storage and our laundry ”facility” is just a large closet. So, I decided that I was going to put a cabinet next to the tank for most of my stuff, including all my controllers.

I found an old curio cabinet in someone’s garage that they sold me for $30. It’s real wood and very heavy; it was also filthy and ugly, but those I can fix.

I started out thinking I would paint the inside of the cabinet but that looked icky, so I covered it with black contact paper. Must better! I then painted the outside of the cabinet grey. I covered the inner side of the mirrows with an opaque window cling. Then I got an octopus tentacles sticker and used my Crickett to make some fish. I got sea glass cabinet knobs.

Excuse the pics being on their sides; I couldn’t figure out how to put them upright again.

 

[stefdvm]

I saw zbryce's post about "painting" his aquascape with watered down Marco mortar, and I was inspired. I had finished my aquascape construction and had put the rocks into large saltwater filled bins in the garage awaiting the arrival of my tank (hopefully in the next 4 to 6 weeks) - I was pleased with the shape but not the overall appearance since I had constructed the pieces out of a combination of old dead rock, new dead rock and mortar. I pulled all of the rocks out of one bin and let them dry out, and then today I started "painting" them. I'm so pleased that I did - they will all be nice and similar when the tank is assembled. I know that it won't matter in the long run, but the fact that I won't have such an extended "ugly" phase - waiting for the coraline and/or corals to grow on the rocks - pleases me to no end.

 

[DaddyFish]

For 13-years I lived literally 2-miles from where you are now. That area has grown SO much in the past 20 years!

Remember that you are not that far from Charlotte, where there's several very nice and well-stocked LFSs, along with a fairly large collection of active reefers. Just pointing it out because I don't think there's that much for you in the Elon/Greensboro area, and Charlotte is probably the same driving time as Raleigh (or less on some days).

 

[stefdvm]

For 13-years I lived literally 2-miles from where you are now. That area has grown SO much in the past 20 years!

Remember that you are not that far from Charlotte, where there's several very nice and well-stocked LFSs, along with a fairly large collection of active reefers. Just pointing it out because I don't think there's that much for you in the Elon/Greensboro area, and Charlotte is probably the same driving time as Raleigh (or less on some days).

There’s a decent shop in Greensboro, but I hadn’t thought about Charlotte; it was pretty much an all day excursion when I lived at the coast. Not so far now! I’m looking forward to being able to go to a nice fish store and pick up something; haven’t been able to do that really since I started reefing.

 

[stefdvm]

We were at a stand still for a loooonnnnngggg time as I got deployment orders on the day before the tank was delivered, and the hubs didn’t want to have to take care of the tank if I was going to be gone for 6 mos. It took a while to sort it out and they eventually rescinded my orders because the DVM over there decided to stay in place for an additional 6 mos. So we were back to working on the tank finally. We decided to take the time to do it right, so I started buying a bunch of stuff for the tank, cause I’m good at buying things lol.

The joists run front to back on the house, and the tank is also front to back, so I worried about the weight bowing my floors. The tank spans 2 joists and backs up to a support wall, but I didn’t want to chance it. Better to over-engineer than regret it later, I think. We discussed options, and in the end - in the spirit of “doing things right” - called out the brick mason who has been doing lots of work here for us and had him pour footings and build support columns under the tank. It was easy to identify because I’d already had the plumber put in water access and a drain line for the tank.

At this point, I realized that I had to figure out the lighting before I could actually put water in the tank. The ceilings in the great room are over 20’ high and hubs said that hanging the lights was not an option. After some discussion and lots of forum searches, we decided to mount the lights on the wall. I drew up some plans and ordered a bunch of stuff from 80/20. Of course, I didn’t get everything that I needed so I got the mount put half way together and had to order some more stuff. We got the support mounted to the wall, put the tank in place and then I started making water.

I had the rocks in salt water in the garage, so I brought them in, arranged them in the tank, added sand and started putting in water. The tank is almost all the way full at this point. Turns out it’s about 300 gallons, so it took a while to make the water.

The hubs built me a “cart” of sorts for my RO/DI system. I’ve always had to make water in the garage and carry it to the tank, and I wanted this to be more self-sufficient. My ATO will do small volume daily water changes, so I have reservoirs for salt and fresh water, and the RO/DI is behind the tank - it rolls out easily to change media or filters. So far, it’s working beautifully.

I attempted to plumb the tank and of course it leaked. I’m not a very good plumber apparently. So I hired a local aquarium maintenance guy to come and re-do it for me. He’s coming back out next week to hook up all the stuff - wave maker, the Apex, etc. Yes, I could probably figure it out myself, but at this point, I’ve had the tank sitting here NOT running for 6 mos, and as we finally approach the point at which I can start cycling the tank, I want it done now. I work a lot, sometimes out of town, so my time can be limited. And I’m remodeling this entire house, so I have several projects going on concurrently. I’ve started bringing in experts to do the things that I even hesitate at. I can spend days trying to figure out how to set up the Apex - because I’ve never had one before and I’m not very tech savvy - or I can have John come out and do it for me in a couple of hours. Yup, that’s the path I chose.

I have to rework the support frame for the lights a bit, which I plan to do tonight, and then I can put it on the supports. I have some pictures that I’ve taken and I’ll post them in a bit. We’re moving slowly forward but the advancement over the last 2 weeks has been huge comparatively, and I’m almost there.

 

[stefdvm]

A few pics -

The tank, still covered in the paper; it stayed that way for months, until the deployment was rescinded and I knew we could work on it.

I LOVE the high ceilings in my house - but they make it pretty impractical to hang the lights over the tank.

The support columns that I had added under the house -

My water supply and drain - just a washing machine hook up, but it works

 

[stefdvm]

The RO/DI cart the hubby built me - I still have to add the handle to make pulling it out from behind the tank easier, but it’s functional the way it is

 

[stefdvm]

Got the rocks and sand in, most of the water too; and the light supports are screwed to the studs; I’ve got to rework the light framing and then I can put it up as well

 

[dantimdad]

Nice setup! Love the RODI cart! I may steal the idea to do something similar.

 

[stefdvm]

Nice setup! Love the RODI cart! I may steal the idea to do something similar.

The cart was hubby’s idea; I was surprised he came up with it; didn’t think he was that creative lol. I was going to mount them on the back of the tank stand but then realized that I wouldn’t be able to change out the media… and he came up with the cart idea; it’s only 8” deep so the tank didn’t have to be too far out from the wall

 

[DaddyFish]

I suggest you do yourself a favor before you get all the way in. Make provisions for a filtered fresh air intake to your skimmer. I'm betting with those high ceilings you will experience an abundant CO2 at tank level. pH could be a big problem down the road.

Beautiful setup so far. Also, you mentioned remodeling in the works. Any chance you will be doing extensive painting or gluing etc. with high VOCs? Might want to get that out of the way before you fill the tank with livestock. May save you some losses.

 

[stefdvm]

I suggest you do yourself a favor before you get all the way in. Make provisions for a filtered fresh air intake to your skimmer. I'm betting with those high ceilings you will experience an abundant CO2 at tank level. pH could be a big problem down the road.

Beautiful setup so far. Also, you mentioned remodeling in the works. Any chance you will be doing extensive painting or gluing etc. with high VOCs? Might want to get that out of the way before you fill the tank with livestock. May save you some losses.

That’s a great idea…. Now I need to figure it out. As for the painting, I also go with low VOCs b/c of the kids and animals. Haven’t had any issues in the past. But good advice nonetheless. Any advice on how I can set up a filtered fresh air intake?

 

[dantimdad]

Drill a hole in the floor and run your skimmer air intake through it. That's how I did mine and pH soon came back into the safe zone.